Mother of Lies

HETH THEREKSON

had not slept all night. That was not unusual for him on the eve of a caravan departure, but it was poor preparation when he would be leading the caravan himself and would need all his wits in the day ahead. Obviously an elderly woman could not be expected to keep up with young Heroes trained to razor sharpness for the ordeal, so the addition of Saltaja to the roster had required innumerable changes and additions-a prefabricated carrying chair, a stove to warm her tent, and so on. Around midnight a runner from Halfway Hall reported rebel troops moving up from Tryfors, so Nardalborg would probably come under attack very shortly. Having appointed Frath his own replacement and Zarpan leader of white pack, Heth had been forced to spend time instructing them in their duties, stressing the need to defend the fortress. As if all those worries were not enough, Femund had gone into screaming hysterics when she learned that Filukena was to go along as Saltaja’s lady’s maid. In the end Heth had been forced to order her confined.

Now dawn was near. When he rapped on Saltaja’s door, it was opened by Filukena herself, already dressed. She blinked uncertainly at her father, as if she barely remembered him.

“You’re up early!” he whispered. He had assumed she was fast asleep in her own room.

She smiled uncertainly. “I sleep on a mat on the floor beside her ladyship now, so I will be within call whenever she needs me. And I must never tell anyone anything I see or overhear. Not even you.”

He swallowed an inexplicable lump in his throat. “It’s a great honor to serve her! You must try very hard to please.”

“Yes, I know.” Filukena lowered her voice. “Father, what’s a guitha?”

“I have no idea. Why?”

“Her ladyship calls me that. I am to be Guitha from now on.”

“Well… that’s a pretty name. Good morning, Guitha! Is her ladyship awake also?”

“Yes she is!” said another voice. The door was hauled wide, revealing Cutrath Horoldson, unarmed, barefoot, with his pall untidily wound around him like a blanket, as if he had just awakened. “Do come in- cousin! ” He smirked.

Heth noted the insolence for later adjustment and walked past him. Saltaja sat on the edge of the platform, fully dressed and eating from a loaded tray beside her. She had insisted on a ground floor room, which in Nardalborg meant a very small one, with little space for more than a narrow sleeping platform. If all three of them had spent the night in there, two must have slept on the floor and would have been crowded even so.

She looked at Heth with very little interest. “Good morning, Huntleader.”

Heth bowed. He told her of the news from Halfway Hall.

“So when do we leave?”

“In about a pot-boiling, my lady. We have started loading the mammoths, as you can probably hear.”

She nodded. “Ah, yes, the mammoths. Cutrath was telling me about the mammoths. How many do you have? How many will we take with us?”

Cutrath’s stubbled face looked inexcusably smug. If that young prig thought he could appoint himself military adviser to lady Saltaja, he was going to meet a painful lesson very soon. The fact that she had two nephews in Nardalborg did not make them equals.

“We will take almost all of them, my lady. You will ride on a howdah, of course, but the rest of us will walk, except when we have to ford rivers and cross boggy patches. Wading through shoulder-deep ice water will kill a man very quickly. Mammoths also carry victuals and the clothing we will need for the Ice itself.”

“What else do they carry? How far do they take us?”

Again Heth glanced at his cousin, but this time the young oaf kept his face respectful. Heth had been running these caravans for ten years now. All Cutrath knew about crossing the Edge he had learned in the orientation lecture that Heth gave the transients when they arrived. He had not noticed young Horoldson being particularly attentive.

“They mostly carry their own fodder, my lady.” Had Cutrath remembered that detail? “This late in the season, they have stripped the grazing all along the road. Each night we feed them and stockpile enough for their return. If the weather holds, the fifth night will see us at First Ice. That is where we have to leave the mammoths. The going is too steep for them beyond that.”

Saltaja looked expectantly at her other nephew.

“If we took all the mammoths and less fodder, couldn’t we get there faster…” The word cousin hung in the air unsaid. “… my lord?”

“Perhaps, but they would not have enough to eat on the way back.”

Cutrath’s eyes glinted. Heth’s confidence wavered under a strong suspicion that he had just stepped in something even nastier than mammoth dung.

“And if you had not stockpiled any fodder on the road home,” the boy said, “what would the mammoths do?”

“They would scatter to find fresh grazing, of course. The Nastrarians would bring them in eventually.”

“And if they had no Nastrarians to guide them?”

Heth gasped, as if at a physical pain. It had taken years to build up that herd. “They would just wander.” He admitted. “Go feral.”

Cutrath shot his aunt a triumphant, I-told-you-so smile. “Without the burden of return-journey fodder, the brutes could get us there faster and carry additional equipment, as well?”

“What sort of additional equipment?”

“Axes to destroy the bridges. Oil to burn the shelters and food stores.”

Heth’s life’s work…

Cutrath shone with joy. “And the river crossings would go faster if the mammoths were less burdened?”

“What is the purpose of this harangue?” Heth barked.

“We don’t want to leave anything for the traitors, do we-my lord? Surely your duty is not just to see her ladyship safely over the Edge, but also to make certain her enemies do not pursue her?”

Of course. This murderous scheme was probably a mixture of Saltaja’s ruthlessness and the boy’s local knowledge, but it did make sense. No cost was too great to secure the lady’s safety. “You are right. We can release those we don’t take with us. They will likely follow for a while and then scatter. We destroy everything we can on the road. And at the Ice…” He had to stop and swallow a few times.

“We kill all the Nastrarians, my lord? Is that what my lord was planning to say?”

Heth nodded miserably. Nastrarians were cold fish, unable to befriend other people, responsive only to their animal charges. Nardalborg employed fifteen of them, men and women. He knew every one of them and he cared, even if they did not. So there was another task to do-delegate some assassins. They would have to be newcomers, not Nardalborg men. “Yes.”

“My lord is kind.”

“Please attend to it, Huntleader,” Saltaja said. “I think warrior Cutrath deserves a promotion for offering this insight, don’t you?”

Cutrath had evidently not expected that, because he flushed. The idea was ridiculous. From what Heth had seen of his nephew so far, he would rather promote one of the kitchen roaches. But he must not offend the Fist’s sister.

“If it was his doing, he certainly does, my lady.” He forced himself to offer Cutrath the customary handshake. “You are advanced to flankleader.” He could not resist asking, “Do you have any special flank in mind?” Is there one that will tolerate you?

The boy pouted, hearing the silent insult. “Couldn’t I just be your military attache, Aunt?”

That would save him from pulling his weight in the grunt work. It might even keep him from being hassled to death.

“An excellent idea!” Saltaja said.

If he must play such games, Heth would make it obvious that games they were. “Then you are promoted two ranks, to packleader, and assigned as special aide to her ladyship. Inform your previous flankleader of your new posting. Draw a red sash from the quartermaster’s.”

Cutrath’s smile was a leer. “My lord is kind.”

“Huntleader,” Saltaja said, nibbling a roll, “how long can the men you leave behind here defend the pass?”

“Depends on the size of the attacking force, my lady.”

“You have instructed the garrison that they must fight to the last drop of blood?”

Heth nodded, throat suddenly dry.

“Good. Another little pep talk will not hurt, though. Send the packleaders to me now. One at a time.”